Sonoma Valley

Off we headed for Sonoma Valley on recommendation that Napa Valley was getting too expensive and commercialized. I have never been to the wine region in the Cape (SA), I know - hard to believe, but I am sure it is as beautiful as this. As it is not really yet the spring season, there are no leaves or fruit on the vines, but it still makes for amazing pictures as the rows and rows of them look perfect up on the hills.

At the visitors center in the town square they told us of a couple vineyards where they offer free wine tasting... no brainer I think. They also told us of a couple others we should try and visit even if we have to cough up tenner or more. The two that stood out are 'Buena Vista', which is the oldest vineyard in the region and the other owned by Francis Ford Coppola, and contains many pieces of memorabilia from his Godfather days.

I was pretty thirsty so we headed for Cline, which happened to be one of the free wine tasting establishments.. funny that. Now I don't really understand the whole etiquette of wine tasting, it's quite a bizarre affair. Even when trying the first glass of wine at someone's house who is fond of their wines, I feel like I perhaps might not be doing this right. Well I seem to have gotten away with it, or they didn't let on. We ended up buying a bottle of red which more than made up for their freebies. We were going to head to the vineyard across the road but without a designated driver we called it quits for a while.

We did go visit a few more vineyards that afternoon, including Buena Vista making for a very worthwhile relaxing day. We camped at a state park not too far from town that evening in order for us to hit the vine tasting with force at an early hour. We were very lucky to see many deer wandering the park that evening and finally had enough light for me to get some pictures of them.